Just sold my tow dolly and am out shopping for a toad. I am interested in a late model BMW 335 or M3 with a manual trans.. Can I flat tow theses and where do I get a base plate. Thanks in advance for your help

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I did quite a bit of research into either an S4 or M3 toad. What I found,

- BMW doesn't approve anything to be flat towed. I believe Remco (or another baseplate company) states that older 5spd BMW's are OK. Personally, I think a manual transmission BMW would be fine flat towed. They use getrag or zf transmissions which are no different than other "approved" manual transmission cars.

- Baseplates will need to be custom fabrications. This will probably run $500-1500 depending on who does the work and how in depth it is.

I ended up with a Mini Cooper S which is a psuedo BMW since they've been widely flat towed (although not approved by BMW/Mini), and have base plates from multiple sources.

I did run into a guy towing a Beemer. It was an auto transmission and what he did was run the motor in the car while he was towing it. That way the lube pump in the trans was running the correct way to lube the trans.

I too was considering towing my 330i w/manual tranny four down. being a BMW car club member I emailed their tech talk expert who responded that he advised against it. That being said I emailed Blue Ox for base plate info. They will custom make one for you at this factory. They offer a great package....Their response is below...1. custom base plate at retail cost... 2.Free installation..3.eligible to stay at their rv park free...4.use of company car...5. 25% discount on blue ox purchases.They need about 2 weeks advance notice to schedule you. Coordinate with their customer care.
I decided not to tow the BMW and bought a 2014 equinox awd to tow instead.

I too was considering towing my 330i w/manual tranny four down. being a BMW car club member I emailed their tech talk expert who responded that he advised against it. That being said I emailed Blue Ox for base plate info. They will custom make one for you at this factory. They offer a great package....Their response is below...1. custom base plate at retail cost... 2.Free installation..3.eligible to stay at their rv park free...4.use of company car...5. 25% discount on blue ox purchases.They need about 2 weeks advance notice to schedule you. Coordinate with their customer care.
I decided not to tow the BMW and bought a 2014 equinox awd to tow instead.

I was disappointed in the response from tech talk. The response to my email was that it did not pass the smell test. No other explanation. I discussed the idea with my independent bmw shop,,, an accomplished bmw racer, and he thought that there would be no problem in towing it. Going to Pender , NE was too far out of my way so I gave up on towing the BMW.

I was disappointed in the response from tech talk. The response to my email was that it did not pass the smell test. No other explanation. I discussed the idea with my independent bmw shop,,, an accomplished bmw racer, and he thought that there would be no problem in towing it. Going to Pender , NE was too far out of my way so I gave up on towing the BMW.

I have yet to hear an actual engineering reason as to why they can't be flat towed, other than BMW not approving it. Someone on RVillage mentioned that it could have something to do with the lubrication being based on the input shaft, rather than output shaft, on the newer transmissions, but I have no clue how accurate that is.

It would be nice to get an answer from a BMW/ZF/Getrag engineer, but I doubt they would give it the green light due to liability issues.